RRAS PPP Connections May Time-out on Slow or Delayed Links

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SYMPTOMS

If you have Routing and Remote Access Service (RRAS) installed on a computer running Windows NT Server and you attempt to dial out to establish a PPP connection with a remote RAS server, the PPP connection may not successfully complete at times. The inability to connect is most likely to occur on a slow or delayed link in which the round-trip delay for a PPP negotiation packet is approximately 1 second or greater. Also, the following error message may be displayed in the graphical user interface of the dialing computer:

CAUSE

The initial phases of starting a PPP link involve negotiating the Link Control Protocol (LCP) layer of the connection. LCP itself has a time-out function when waiting for a response to a configuration request from its PPP peer. If the sending side does not receive a configuration acknowledgement in time (that is, in less than 1 second), then the sending side times out and sends a second configuration request. In the meantime, the receiving end of the PPP connection receives a second configuration request, which results in a restart of LCP and the timeout counter is reset to zero. This scenario repeats in a "round-robin" fashion between the two PPP peers. The ultimate result is that negotiation of the LCP layer never completes.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Windows NT 4.0. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in theMicrosoft Knowledge Base: